saundena

Op, were you trying to be sarcastic?

What do you know that the rest of us don't?!?!

We still looked rusty against Miami in the first game, despite the score. The outcome of the second game against Miami was also very much in doubt until the 4th quarter. Good teams don't let bad teams hang around. Agreed on your TEN comments. If JA doesn't slip (or if the Oline blocks better), we are in a much better position. Still, we should have played INDY much closer to how we played TEN. Losing a close fought game against a good team is much different than getting blown out at home. You are right that not everything can be fixed in season, but the penalties and schemes can be tightened up

1. I think a guy like Alan Mullaly would be interesting. Started at Boeing, led a fierce and successful effort against Airbus, helped turn Ford around, but also faced some difficulties there as well (some of it due to the financial downturn in '08 / '09. A guy like that has seen it all, made mistakes and learned from them. I believe he's on Google's board right now. Quit sleeping at the wheel Terry 2. I don't have a problem with Bean's drafting. It's a 50/50 crapshoot at best. I'm not a college football guy and I don't know players. My hope was for an Olineman in the 2nd but if Basham pans out then it's all OK. I think guys like Motor and Moss would look so much better if we actually had a line that could block. No team is perfect. I honestly think McBean are good talent evaluators- they just place very high priority on high motor high character individuals. Nothing wrong with that especially when you're changing culture- but as some point, talent is just as important, if not more so.

I agreed with most of what you said. I think we will know a lot more about this team next year. As for the consultant, I don't mean consultants like the Bobs from Office Space but rather somebody that could look at McD and his upper staff, assess their strengths and weaknesses and help develop an plan to further enhance their organization leadership skills for an organization trying to sustain success

I don't think that is a fair statement. Professionals at all levels often seek the advice of mentors and trainers. Nobody is born with all the answers and skills and an outsiders perspective oftentimes helps. McD is still pretty young all things considered.

There is something fundamentally wrong with our team this year. It seems like we believed our own hype- and that if we just "showed up", we could phone it in for most games and still be a shoe-in to repeat in the AFC Championship game. Our roster is very good and largely remains unchanged compared to last year- while one could argue that our recent failings are due to xyz on the roster- we're basically the same on paper (if not slightly improved), and yet have already lost 4 games (2 in a very bad way) with half the season to go! We lack focus and accountability. The high number of drive killing penalties we see, week after week, is proof of this- as too is the quantity of Instagram content generated during practices... goofy dances, special handshakes, etc. If I had to put my finger on it, I would say that McDermott and his high level staff are the root cause of our struggles. I'm not saying that we should get the pitchforks and torches, but what we are seeing here is something that is actually very common in the business world: Companies sometimes struggle after achieving major organizational goals and objectives and management/CEO's are often the reason why. In the business world, there are all kinds of CEO's with different experiences, skillsets, styles, etc; some excel at leading massive turn arounds of struggling organizations, but don't have the same continued success when it comes to running the mundane, day-to-day facets of an organization that is otherwise, performing well. I wonder if this is what we are seeing with McDermott and his staff? He (and Beane) were terrific when it came to leading the Bills out of the doldrums of despair. Decisions were made quickly, with confidence and the players really grabbed onto what McDermott was selling. We were underdogs and still not very good early on in is head coaching tenure, but it was obvious that McDermott had a vision, had a plan to execute it, and was confident in his ability to do so. His focus on individual character, family and process helped instill in our Bills, a scrappy, "us versus the world" mindset and last year was the culmination of all it all. We had arrived. The Bills were on the map and everybody gave us the respect we earned. Things were going great and expectations were sky high heading into this season. Yet, we stumbled out of the gate to start the season (Loss wk 1 and looked only OK against a bad Miami team) and have yet to find consistency against mediocre and above teams. It's fair to say that that we have not lived up to expectations thus far in 2021 and I'm wondering if our CEO/McDermott is the reason why. Maybe he is better at executing major turn arounds than he is at maintaining and sustaining success. Now that we've "arrived" the same tactics that he used in the past, might not work as well. Character, while important- doesn't necessarily trump talent. We are the 800 lb gorilla with a target on our back and our opponents give us their best week in and week out. The love and camaraderie that our players have for each other is terrific, but will that keep guys from holding one another accountable to each each other, especially when the going gets tough and answers are hard to find? Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses and in no way am I suggesting that McDermott isn't the guy for us for the next 10+ years. I do believe that if this is indeed the case, that McDermott has the intelligence, drive and capability to try and become a better leader, even if the traits he needs to exhibit now aren't ones that come naturally to him. McDermott seem to be very self aware and aware of his own shortcomings. I wonder if the Pegula's would entertain brining in a management consultant to assess and "coach" our coach for his benefit and the teams.

I refuse to vote in a ridiculous poll.

We don't have the same confidence that we had last year. I don't see us coming back to win today. Hope I eat my words

We are a finesse team with questionable toughness. O line is a disaster as is Dabol's playcalling. We won't get homefield in the playoffs and will struggle to stay ahead of NE.

I think we are a #8 - #12 type of defense. Not elite, but very good. We've gotten a lot of turnovers, but as we all know, turnovers are a streaky thing. I expect that when we play better teams, it will be harder to get turnovers at the same pace. As others have said, sometimes just having qb pressure isn't enough. We really seemed to make Tanny uncomfortable last week, but we also let him escape from should be sacks just enough times in the 2nd half for him to convert 3rd downs. Overall, I think this team is playing at 85% and I suspect they will tighten things up as the year goes on. Our Offense will definitely get sharper while our D might fall back slightly (at least statistically) as we play some better teams like NOLA, TB, NE & INDY, but it's still a very good defense and certainly not a liability. I also think that we will "peak" in December and January- which is exactly what you want, simply because we have one of the most well rounded and DEEPEST team in the NFL. As long as we are not disproportionately impacted by injuries during the next 2 months, the total cumulative "talent level" our 1st stringer and depth players should be better than just about every other team come December.

On paper, the Rams are the best team in the league, even more so now that the have Von Miller. We don't match up well against them. Our offensive line is a liability versus their stout D. On defense, Stafford and all of those weapons scare me. I don't think we would keep up with them.

Help me understand something.... Why is Miami the only place that DW wants to go and is willing to be traded too? Seems strange he would nix Carolina which I think is a much better team all around.

I agree with the OP. Nothing wrong with a little friendly on opposing teams message boards, but keep it classy and remember things in the NFL can change quickly.

I thought the same thing. Hopefully this isn't a bad omen for what is to come

Always enjoy your comments (although the lyrics/quotes are always lost on me) Your David and Goliath is very true. Sometimes, Goliath simply pulverizes David. With respect to 8 - deep seam, I noticed this too and I wonder if any of Josh's supposed hesitation on those through might be due to the weather at yesterday's game? It was very wet and he seemed to be throwing high all day, like it was sipping out of his hand a spit second too early. The INT... to me that seemed like a miscommunication. I'm very happy with Edmonds

Maybe I'm still traumatized from the Pittsburg game, but this guy Haak scares me. Bring back Bojorquez; I don't know why we got rid of him. The few times we called upon him to punt last year, he was excellent!

I don't have The Athletic, but they have a writeup on Josh's early season struggles. Anybody who has a subscription, I'd be curious to hear your take / summary on what they say (pls don't copy paste the article). Me, I figured that he's regress, but not in a bad way. Basically I felt that his passing yards, TD's etc would be reduced with an improved running game and defense. I still expected him to be a high completion % passer and have a low % of interceptions. I didn't expect this. I think he will improve and hopefully it doesn't take all season. I know that the Bills installed a bunch of new plays before the Miami game. Could this be one of the reasons why our offense wasn't so crisp against the Fins? Edit-- I know everybody is going to tell me to get The Athletic, but the only sport I watch is Football and I really only care about the Bills. I wish I could get a Bills only subscription to the Athletic!

Probably could have used his blocking skills today

We believed the media hype

Agreed with you about playing in pubs, which is why we play at our house or a friends house. Most pubs are a recipe for disaster, but Houston does have a few good board game cafes where that is less of a concern. See, I like Talisman. It's not hard or very strategic and there is a lot of randomness, but it is very "story like" and the designers (FFG) did a really great job with the fluff and flavor, making the world come alive, especially where the expansions are concerned! I get it though, it's not for everybody.

How do I get on on that!

Early on during the REAL pandemic (March 2020 I believe), my friends and I decided to play Pandemic virtually. It took 3x as long since we had to basically have one person controlling the deck for everybody, not to mention constantly adjusting the camera so everybody could clearly see the game board.

I tend to collect too, but which drives my wife crazy. Gloomhaven is terrific, but it's a 4+ hour commitment with our group- chatty wives + booze. I will buy Frosthaven, but want to beat Gloom first. I'll also say that the token organizers and 3rd party dashboards, counters, standee's etc make the game so much better from an organization standpoint. Betrayal is good, never played Dead of Winter. Over the years, we've also played a lot of Talisman, Pandemic and Dominion.

Forget Catan! I'd like to know what their Gloomhaven strategy is